Women's+Fashion

**__ Women's Fashion __ Page by: Carrie Sheng 6A** Most Egyptian’s clothing was made out of linen, a kind of cloth that was produced from flax. Flax is a plant with small leaves, blue flowers, and stems that were around 2 feet tall. Making linen in Ancient Egypt was quite interesting: first the men had to pull out the plant instead of cutting it after waiting for about 100 days for the seed to grow into this 1 meter or 60 cm plant. Only the half-ripe stems had the ability to be spun into the finest thread. After this was done, the workers would start to weave the thread into the cloth, linen. The Egyptians also used wool to make their clothing. However, wool was not used as often as linen because the priests believed that any material made out of animals was too unclean to visit the temple. The long, straight robes with one to two shoulder straps worn by women in Ancient Egypt were made out of the cloth, linen. In the New Kingdom, the dresses that were draped or pleated were in fashion. All the women in Ancient Egypt wore the same style of dresses, but the wealthy women would wear linen that was transparent. The royalty used the finest and lightest bleach-white linen cloth for their dresses. The children of Ancient Egypt wouldn’t wear clothes until they were around 6, and then they would start to wear the clothing that the women and men would wear. Usually, if there weren’t special occasions, then the poor people wouldn’t wear footwear. But, for special occasions, they had to wear footwear, or else their feet would get hurt. The sandals worn by the poor were made out of braided papyrus or palm fiber, while the wealthy wore sandals made out of leather.

The wealthy women liked to dress themselves up in makeup, wigs, and headdresses. It’s quite amazing that their makeup was made differently as we do today, but they were used for the same purposes, and applied similarly: black powder call kohl, used as eyeliner, cheek powder known as ochre, and henna, as we still use today. Henna was used in Ancient Egypt as nail polish, and used to dye their hair.

Jewelry was an important part of their fashion and whether they were rich or poor, they wore jewelry: rings, necklaces, and ear studs (earrings). (Please refer to jewelry section for more information) historylink101.net/**egypt**_1/a-**clothing**.htm – www.dragonstrike.com/egypt/cloth.htm [] (Book)The historical encyclopedia of Costumes by: Albert Racinet www.vestaldesign.com www.touregypt.net upload.wikimedia.org www.jennifertalbot.co.uk library.thinkquest.org www.britishmuseum.org
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